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Topic: New Weber Pizza Oven Build (Read 6238 times)

So I'm finally getting around to building a pizza oven out of some spare weber parts. I got a 22 1/2" lid and base. I added everything else. I have a machine shop so this was a fun build. Some of the parts are shown on my other weber as I was testing the fit.

Basically I made a custom coal grill to serve a couple purposes. One was to hold the coals in a 'C' shape and second is to allow a center hole for the propane burner I'm going to add so it doesn't burn or warp the grate. I took some of the ideas here and incorporated them into my design. Such as the ability to use propane, charcoal and smoking wood. If you notice in one picture the grate has a metal ring that hasn't been welded on yet. It serves a few purposes as well. One is to hold the coals so they don't fall in the hole and so the propane adds heat but doesn't burn up the coals.

Next for the upper part. I'm not using the upper grill and made a cross bar system that holds a 18" stainless steel disc that's on a simple bearing type system so the pizza can be easily rotated while cooking. The SS plate will have little nubs welded on to keep the pizza stone from sliding around and be able to grip it better with a utensil to spin it. The lid I cut a slot in then made a Stainless pan that bolts to the lid with ceramic insulation in between. The only part of the grill I didn't make so pretty was the pan that bolts to the lid as it was a prototype. The next version I'll make it look a lot nicer, but I need to test this one first to make sure it reflects the heat and doesn't warp so much as to deform.

I'm going to add a thermocouple and a holder on the outside to hold my digital pyrometer.

Welcome. I have no suggestions but I eagerly await to see how this set up works. Im looking into a similar purpose built Weber. The level of precision and ingenuity in some of the builds amazes me, yours seems to be at the top!! Please post some more pics.

The last picture is when I was test fitting on my other weber. On the real one, pictured below, the burner will be on the bottom of the kettle so about 2-4 inches away from the bottom grate, that makes it quite far, I would think from the actual stone.

I'm a wine maker and distiller [professional, not bootleg] so I save bottles, not for my production line, but for home use. If you look under the newbie section I posted the first test pies to come out of this.

By placing the stone in the center of the Weber, your missing out on the majority of top heat that is available. If you would move the stone to the edge of the weber and cover the sides (of the grate) with foil or some plate (leaving about 1/4 of the circumference behind the stone not blocked by foil) this forces the hot air from the burner to the back of the stone. The hot air then has to travel all the way across the pizza to exit in your lid cutout. This is just how others have done it, and it works very well.

I've been making my way through the original LBE thread. I think I'm going to add a clay tile to inside of the lid along with another piece of 1/8 thick stainless to reflect. Then I'm going to cover the hole in the bottom grate with clay tiles as well to hold heat. I'm not sure how I'll be able to block the area off but I'll work on it.

OK so I did some mods today and made the first eat-able (edible) pizza. I turned my bottom grate upside down and covered it with firebricks. I then wanted to add some thermal mass to the lid and I couldn't find any terra cotta tiles large enough today, Sunday, then I was cruising around the home depot website and notice they sold a 16" terra cotta planter saucer, freakin' perfect. So I went to Home Depot and picked it up. I was hoping I was going to be able to mount it right on top of the inside of the lid, on top of the SS dome I made. This would have been ideal as the high lips on the terra cotta saucer would direct heat down. But it made the ceiling way too low, couldn't get a pizza in there. I decided to take the dome out and trim the insulation and then work the saucer in. It went back together, looks exactly like before with the SS dome, but there is now the thermal mass of the terra cotta in there.

I fired it up and waited about 20 minutes until the stone read about 650 with my IR thermometer and the thermocouple on the inside of the lid (air space) read 560 or so. Then I lowered the amount of gas out of the propane burner as I did before with the test run; as it made a significant heat difference when cooking the first time. I let it rest for a few minutes to equalize. It kind of did.

I cooked one pizza and it cooked pretty slow about 3-4 minutes, hard to tell as many of you know, you want to time it but are concentrating on the pizza itself.

The pizza came out pretty good, ate it all. It could have been cooked a little longer, but not by much at all. The cheese was melted and browned a little. The bottom wasn't browned hardly at all you can see in the pics below.

Observations. I used bag shredded cheese, Pizza Blend, from Smart and Final, big mistake, not bad but very Corporate Pizza tasting. I also used Contadina Tomato Sauce. I noticed when I opened it up there were herbs in it. I bought the "italian herb" blend of tomato sauce by accident, DOH! I just used the sauce as it.

I thought using the firebricks that would help keep the oven stable, but I covered up the hole in the grate as well and that didn't allow the heat to really heat up the oven same as before.

So I think the lid worked as it should, next time, maybe later this evening (can you tell I'm addicted), I'll remove the firebricks that are covering the hole so direct heat can get to my pizza stone.

I've been reading the LBE original thread and I've come to the conclusion that I don't' need a vent in the top or that partial blockage of the heat as you, Jet, mentioned. Here's why, since i have a vent in the front the heat will rise and it naturally comes out the front, I don't think it needs directing. Also most propane burners has an adjustment for air where the hose comes out so I don't think it's starved for air as mentioned in the original LBE thread. When I didn't have the firebricks in there I had no problem getting up to 900+, now it was hard to get 700.

The best part is I'm learning.

The hardest freakin' thing so far is forming the dough into a nice round even thickness shape. Are there any videos you guys have bookmarked on youtube. I searched and can't find anything specifically on make the pizza skin.

P.S. In real life the black parts on the top of the pizza didn't look that bad, here it looks burnt, but wasn't really.